Nippon Japanese Restaurant

Traditional sushi at its best. Great ambiance, outstanding staff, and good olé fashion quality sushi. No crazy or unique rolls here. But it makes up for that with the quality of food and drink, not to mention decent prices.

The place and the parking spot is small, good service but the bento box menu portion was too small, I can eat 2 of those easily. The food very good, i just wish they give a lil bit bigger portion. My husband ordered the seafood plate and he loved it.

Best Japanese in town. Traditional and not pretentious. Great attention to subtle flavors. If you like covering your sushi with mayo, go somewhere else. Sophisticated service. Always at least one real Japanese customer in the restaurant.

Not my first time here, but my first to check-​in. The parking entails complimentary valet, which is not my favorite method. Keep in mind, Nippon is quite tiny and can be easily missed. Onto the food, I consider these types of restaurant pretty authentic and good as it gets.
We ordered the poke and the shishamo as appetizers. The poke was good with a slight kick. They specified Hawaiian style, but I use to the style with the orange caviars so it was a bit off for me. The shishamo was just buttered fried fish with light salt for taste. It was a simple starter to open up our palete.
I had (and still am) a mad craving for cold soba dipping noodles known as «Ten Zaru Soba» on the menu. I had variation of dipping sauces while visiting Dallas (Tei-​An has amazing dipping soba noodles by far) and I was a big fan of it since it was hot summer day. It something about slurping the cold noodles to cool you down on a blazing and humid day. The soba came with 2 shrimp tempura and a side of wasabi and sliced green onions. It’s a simple, straight-​forward, no bs type of dish. The execution was spot on. However, the tradition is that after you finish your noodles you would usually get the hot noodle broth to finish off your dipping sauce. Nippon does not offer that kind portion so needless to say I am slightly disappointed.
The toro. We asked the waitress if they had chutoro and if they did not have chutoro, we would not like to get the toro. Instead, she brought the otoro. There’s usually three types: Akami (lean tuna), chutoro (lean+a bit of fatty), and otoro (fattiest part of the tuna). My friend and I prefer the chutoro which has a good balance of both. Anyhow, I would prefer them not to bring it out at all, but it was fatty and it melts in your mouth so I can’t be that mad at her.
The uni was from hokkaido, but lately I suppose it is not in season because a lot of the restaurants that I’ve got to the quality of the uni is not that good. I would advise not to order this.
I’m not in love with this restaurant, but would definitely go back. I am now on a witch hunt to find the best cold soba noodles in Houston. Wish me luck!

This is one of my favorite places for sushi in Houston. The Sake Toro (Nigiri) is from another world, you must try it! Rolls are really good too, last time I had the Shaggy roll and it was good. The Unagi Nigiri was also delicious. In other occasions I have had the Sashimi Special, pricy but worth it, really fresh (don’t forget to ask to fry the sweet shrimp tails after you eat them). I have yet to try the Ramen here

Probably the best and most authentic sushi and Japanese restaurant I have been to (so far) in Houston.
The staff is friendly and they serve you fast. There are a lot of options to choose from. From basic to exotic, you will have plenty of choices. If you choose to go with a large group, they will arrange your sushi/​sashimi on these really cool wooden Japanese boats (by request I suppose).
The atmosphere is very authentic and quiet. A tranquil place, if you will.
Naoki is probably my favorite roll. Godzilla, Tiger Eye and Caterpillar are also very tasty. I always get a Philadelphia roll when I go; this is pretty much a standard roll for any sushi restaurant so it’s kinda hard to mess it up.
Lunch time is quiet and evenings are busier. Valet is available. Priced well. Must try! I love this place. My coworker brought me one time and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Delicious food! Hands down one of my favorite Japanese restaurants. Great, attentive service with for a very reasonable price. It’s a great low-​key date spot. Parking can be a bit of a problem since it’s a really small lot, but if you cross the street you can park in the neighborhood.
I regularly order the gyoza and beef roll for a full meal. I’ve brought friends who love sushi and they swear by the California rolls. Tons of options — you can’t go wrong!

We’ve driven past this place so many times but finally decided to try it! Such a cute little Japanese restaurant, great service and good atmosphere. We tried the grilled calamari, it was delicious! We also tried the chicken skewers, and the yaki udon with beef. The sauce for the udon dish was slightly sweet which I personally didn’t like as much. However, my fiancé got the Pork Ramen and I couldn’t get enough! The broth was flavored so well. We will be back to try their sushi next time!

Amazing food, came here for lunch and was blown a way with the food quality. The customer service is FANTASTIC as well, and I was made to feel right at home. I Would absolutely recommend if you are looking Asian.

Yummy! Stopped in for lunch to get their VERY reasonably priced bento box (9.50). 6 sushi rolls, grilled chicken, some things I didn’t recognize, and a starter salad with really wonderful ginger dressing. I sat on the patio, and while Montrose it a little noisy, it was still a nice little patio. Everything was really yummy, the grilled chicken, the California sushi roll (I’m not sushi fancy), the salad, it was all great. I work right down the street at the museum so I know I’ll be back for a quick and delicious lunch.

This is my ABSOLUTE favorite Japanese owned Japanese restaurant that’s a real institution in the Montrose /​Museum District. I love this place because they’re not trendy or hip but you will always get the same consistent good quality every time. Can’t get enough of their seaweed salad, miso soup and tempura. They have got that down to an art. I also love their sushi and is quite the purist so I’ve never had any of their specialty rolls. However, I do recommend: Hamachi Kama (yellow tale tuna collar — goggle that!), Monkfish Liver (especially if you’re a liver fan of pâté and foie gras) and Uni (sea urchin — which is not for the superficial sushi eater or newbie). GO ALREADY for some really great AUTHENTIC Japanese cuisine!

Truly authentic Japanese food! Love coming here for their tapas.
I usually get the
— agedashi tofu (flash fried tofu with bonito flakes and tentsuyu broth)
— ika geso (fried squid legs)
— shishamo (grilled smelt fish)
— Saba shioyaki (grilled mackerel)
— gyoza (pork dumplings, seared.)
— karaage (boneless fried chicken)
Occasionally I’ll get a roll.
Nippon roll is my favorite!
I have yet to try the curry or hotpot but that’s on my todo list.
Service is friendly and attentive.
My favorite Japanese restaurant to date!

Nippon is one of my favorite restaurants to grab Japanese food. Yes, the parking is terrible, but if you get there early, it shouldn’t be a problem!
What I love:
1. Tako wasabi– this is one of my favorite apps here. Raw octopus marinated in a wasabi sauce with pickled ginger and fresh cucumber slivers. Yum!
2. Nikome (no idea how to spell this) — a very authentic appetizer that’s off the menu– intestine prepared with some type of radish and potato served with gravy.
3. Curry udon– the curry udon is sooo yummy here! The last time I went, it was a tad salty, but still pretty tasty. Comes with 2 chunks of imitation crab meat, a lot of beef and onion, and plenty of udon noodles in a thick curry-​based broth.
4. Chirashi– the fresh fish is so good here! Love this dish a lot.
5. Strawberry sake– they carry a strawberry sake here that is impossible to find elsewhere. Perfect to share with a group!
6. Bento boxes– the bento boxes are beautifully presented and come with a delightful potato salad and two pieces of lightly fried tofu on the side. Delicious!
7. Green tea– love their hot green tea and it comes with unlimited refills.
I like sitting on the patio when the weather permits. It is also a great spot for parents to eat with their babies, too!

My boyfriend and my favorite sushi place. Great sushi for those interested inactual quality of fish instead if flashy rolls. Nigiri and sashimi are high quality, succulent even, especially the toro. Octopus and squid apetizers unique and exceptional. The place is owned by Japanese, and you can kinds tell.
Best part is most people don’t know how good this place really is, so the wait is less than the higher end places. Less pricey too.

Houston has a lot of good eats, but let’s face it, Japanese is not its forte.
This restaurant is okay. As far as I know they are owned and operated by Japanese, or Japanese descent, or Japanese speaking employees. The food is all right. We used to get their sashimi items, but after we found a hair in the chirashi bowl, could not get myself to eat raw fish after that (I did get a 10 or 20% discount).
But even after that we find ourselves here because there’s not many solid, more lax Japanese restaurants. The gyoza are your prepackaged ones, udon has a bit of a tap water after taste in the initial slurps of the soup. However the tacowasibi — not many restaurants in Houston serve it, is still my fav.

Let me preface this review with stating that all those people who are complaining that the food was not good and they would rather go to other places must have either come here on a really bad night, or they just don’t like good Japanese food because they are used to having Kyoto Sushi in College Station.
One of my very first memories as far back as I can ever remember is being in front of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo Ginza. When I walked into Nippon, it instantly felt special. You start feeling like you are in Japan of circa 1983. This is exactly the time you want to be in Japan because from what my father tells me it was the best time he has ever had there. This is as authentic as any Japanese food I have ever had in Houston. The service was absolutely wonderful. Our server Renee was courteous and hilarious. The food kept coming at a steady pace.
We ordered the hot green tea, agedashi tofu, karaage, tiger roll, and the curry udon. I tend to be very particular about my green tea. I don’t like it when it’s not made right. It is one of those things that you have to have in order to know what the description would be as my experience of having it fails me to come up with words for the description. All in all, by far the best green tea I have had to date. Next we had the miso soup. It was typical in style where it is served with a lid on top and then you remove it before you annihilate it. In this instance, the miso soup looked excellent. There was no lack of seasoning, as well no shortage of green onions or tofu. It was dashi done right. The agedashi tofu came and it was gone before I can hardly remember as it was fried to perfection on the outside and on the inside it was so smooth and silky. The tiger roll came next. I only had one piece of it as I was really looking forward to the karaage. The karaage is fried chicken which you secretly want to eat with ketchup but who wants to ask for ketchup at a Japanese restaurant! So I squeezed the lemon that is served with and OMG I didn’t even think that the taste of the chicken could be elevated but the lemon proved me wrong.
By the time my udon curry came I was so full that I only had maybe two spoonfuls and a few chopstick stabs at my dish. I had to ask the server for the check before I could done any further damage to my poor little stomach. It hasn’t even been a full 12 hours since I left Nippon but I am already ready to go back.

My absolute favorite sushi place in all of Houston. The sushi is always super fresh, the Japanese curry on Wednesdays and Thursday’s is delicious. The sushi chefs are great and will always let you know what is fresh and the best that day, just ask. This is my go to place and never disappoints. Be sure to get the fatty seared salmon sushi and the tamago.

Nippon seems to be losing their steam, with all the new Japanese restaurants opening up in the area. This is sad, because Nippon is still one of the only authentic, Japanese-​owned Japanese restaurants in Houston. I came back to Nippon recently, and I was charmed by the traditional and authentic feel of it. The inside feels like a house, and our waitress was the little old Japanese lady (the owner?) who repeated everything we said in Japanese to herself. It was super cute :).
The menu items include more of the traditional dishes you would find in a restaurant in Japan– like sukiyaki, soba noodles, dango, etc. I like it because it goes beyond the sushi rolls and chicken teriyaki and udon that are ubiquitous in all Japanese restaurants these days (although they do have all of these things too). I, for one, was super excited about their sukiyaki, but I couldn’t eat it all myself so instead I got the sukiyaki ju, which was pretty much a smaller portion of all their sukiyaki ingredients served on top of a bed of rice. It had thin sliced beef, cabbage, bean sprouts, bean noodles, onions and tofu. I could tell they use a good quality beef, which is super important in sukiyaki. It was delicious!
My friends and I also shared agedashi tofu, karaage (fried chicken), and ika-​geso (fried squid). The agedashi tofu was one of the best I’ve ever had, crispy on the outside and silky smooth on the inside, and swimming in a delicious sauce. The ika-​geso and karaage were also good and had generous portions. Of course, I had to have a taste of my friends’ entrees too: P, nabeyaki udon and curry udon. Both were good, although I preferred the nabeyaki udon. The curry sauce was rather thick and didn’t taste like it was homemade (I could be wrong though). The udon itself was not as bouncy and chewy as I like, but my friends enjoyed it.
I would definitely come back to Nippon when I’m craving some authentic Japanese food, especially since it’s so much closer than Sushi Miyagi or Izakaya-​wa, which are another two of the only Japanese-​owned Japanese restaurants in Houston. I would probably go for the more traditional dishes when I come here, like the noodles, rice, or appetizers. They’re much more filling and cheaper than the sushi!

I came here because someone recommended this place to me and said that it tasted like authentic japanese food. The parking in the back looks like it can only hold a few cars. It wasn’t too busy when we walked in and were seated immediately in the corner. I came here with some friends and we ordered different things from the menu: yaki udon with beef, spider handroll, naoki roll, and shaggy roll.
YAKI UDON WITH BEEF– japanese stir fried noodles mixed with cabbage, carrots, other mixed vegetables, and beef seasoned with a smokey sweeten oyster sauce
The udon wasn’t as flavorful as I would’ve liked it and the beef was tough and very chewy. The only thing I liked on the dish was the cabbage because it soaked up the flavor and was refreshing and light.
SPIDER HANDROLL– soft shell crab, masago, and cucumber
I was so disappointed in the spider handroll. The roll was loosely rolled and was falling apart after a few bites. The crab wasn’t crispy and it tasted flat and tasteless. It was so dry overall. I wish they would’ve added some kind of sauce.
NAOKI ROLL– spicy tuna, avocado, rolled in tempura crumbs topped with unagi sauce and spicy mayo
This was considered one of their most popular dishes, but when I tried it it wasn’t all that great. It was loaded with tempura crumbs and that was all I could taste. I really couldn’t taste anything else. There was nothing special about this roll. I don’t know why people rave about it so much.
SHAGGY ROLL– shrimp tempura, avocado, overlayed w/​kani, green onion, unagi sauce, and spicy mayo
This is another one of their most popular rolls and I’ve had some really good shaggy rolls elsewhere and was hoping to see how this one fared among them. The tempura was missing that crunch when I bit into it, which was so surprising because there was plenty of it in the Naoki roll. The flavors weren’t as prominent as I would’ve liked.
The service was attentive and friendly, the atmosphere was chill and relaxing, but the quality and flavors of food was lacking and disappointing. I wanted to try the sake toro, but they didn’t have anymore, which was even more disappointing. I give 2.5 stars. Maybe authentic japanese food isn’t for me. I probably won’t be coming back here anytime soon.

So i tried for the first time and I must say the food was fantastic. I had the shrimp tempura. It is cooked with egg and served on a bed of rice and. Served with miso soup. Everything was absolutely fantastic! The miso soup was some of the best I’ve had.
Appetizer:
Calamari-​fried and very tasty. I would recommend it.
Entrée:
As mentioned the fried shrimp tempura is cooked with egg and served on a bed of rice. Absolutely amazing! Very filling and it’s served in a cool bento box.
One negative:
So I ordered a Dr. Pepper. A lot of ice. My wife drank most of it. Left me with a little even though she gave me a mean look for ordering soda. But no big deal that’s part of a happy marriage. So of course I ask for a refill and the lady says «you have to pay for a refill.» Really??? I mean it’s a soda for God’s sake. It totally annoyed me and I find it highly cheap for an established place to do that to customers. I mean you charged $ 1.75. I’m sure the profit margin is killer anyways. So if you order any soda here drink sparingly if you don’t like paying a ridiculous amount for syrup infused drinks that cost 0.10.
Other than that, everything else was fantastic.

This is one of the very few Japanese-​owned sushi restaurants in town, and I don’t know why I’ve never tried it until now, but I’m glad I did.
The restaurant is pretty easy to find, but beware of the parking lot, which was completely full and arranged in a strange manner. On a typical Tuesday night, the place was pretty packed. My friends and I came just in time, so we didn’t have to wait, but a line was starting to form right after we were seated.
It’s a small place, and the atmosphere is quite lively. One of my friends had warned us that it would be a long wait for the food to come out, as the staff usually has their hands full. We must’ve been pretty lucky, though, because our food came our relatively quickly, and the service, while not fully attentive, was good enough. I had heard a bit about the ramen here, so that was my choice for the night (pork flavored). My friends both got nabeyaki udon, and we also split a roll and the tempura ice cream. The udon was normal, but the ramen really surprised me. Houston definitely has an untapped market in ramen shops, and most ramen lovers I know of (myself included) are always lamenting the lack of good, quality ramen here. That said, I was not expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised by both the flavor in the broth and the tenderness of the pork. Yes, there should be more meat, but it was really tasty! Granted, this still pales in comparison to what Japanese ramen should be, but by Houston standards, this is a success.
The roll we ordered was simple (as are most of the rolls on the menu), but you can definitely tell the fish is fresh and delicious. The tempura ice cream came highly recommended by the waiter, but I thought it was merely decent. Overall, we were pleased with everything, and I will be sure to return again.